


back to the abyss (please don't make me go)

by willowcat33



Series: ETNuary 2020! [8]
Category: Escape the Night (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Buried Alive, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Insanity, The Void, eyo justine im very sorryyy, general dying twice shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:41:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22165024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willowcat33/pseuds/willowcat33
Summary: (ETNuary Day 8: Justine Ezarik)Justine has died twice. Both times afraid, both times technically as the direct action of another player. Has she suffered enough? Yes, of course. Am I going to put her through it all again?Yes, of course.
Relationships: The Gambler | Justine Ezarik & The Savant | Joey Graceffa
Series: ETNuary 2020! [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1587880
Comments: 8
Kudos: 9





	back to the abyss (please don't make me go)

**Author's Note:**

> eyO eYYY, GMORNING
> 
> HAVE SOME ANGST IN YOUR COFFEE/TEA/OTHER MORNING BEVERAGE
> 
> tws for: betrayal, being buried alive, mention of gunfire, choking, the void, death, hopelessness

Justine is alone. Utterly, entirely, and completely alone. And she has been since her so-called friends decided to shove her in a coffin and bury her  _ alive _ in the backyard of this hellhole house. You know, classic friendship activities, right?

No matter how much she yells and screams, sobs and pleads, the echoing fall of dirt hitting her coffin is unrelenting, barely breaking a rhythm as she begs for her life through the wood and the earth. Every time something hits the wooden lid of her forced resting place Justine flinches, the fall and impact sounding like a hail of bullets to the poor former Gambler's ears.

Her breath is short already, air snatched from her lungs by tearful hiccups and raggedy breathing from the sheer panicked  _ terror  _ she felt as her name was pulled. She'd ran, of course she did, but they were faster. Stronger. Bloodthirsty. Especially Tim, who's wanted her dead since she failed Andrea.

Only Joey seemed against the plan, and if she strains, she can just about hear his yelling at the others, full of anger and grief and begging for them to just  _ listen, please, get her out of there she doesn't deserve it! _

Justine shuts her eyes- it doesn't do anything, there's no light in the coffin but a darkness that she has chosen is far less terrifying than the one she has not.  _ Oh, Joey…  _ she thinks, heart aching for her friend.  _ Save your breath. They're not coming back down here for me. Make sure they don't put you down too, okay? Keep safe, keep living.  _

She's getting drowsy already, presumably from the lack of air- the cursed artefact is obviously speeding up the process of Justine's death (she can't tell if that's even a bad thing or not at this point, head foggy as she breathes shakily, desperate for this to end). Justine can no longer hear dirt thrumming down, so she assumes it's finished.

_ So that's it. This is where I die. _

_ I… I don't want to go,  _ she pleads fruitlessly in her mind.  _ Its dark down here, and it's cold, and I just want to go  _ home- _no one_ _ should he dead, in fact. _

_ We were meant to be having a.. party, a dinner party, that's it..  _ she's struggling to think, woozy as she struggles to draw in another breath, inhaling as long as her lungs will allow.  _ So how did it go wrong this fast? Will any of us make it out? _

And with that, she blows out what will become an exam final breath- and as if someone had just snuffed the candle that was her life, all her lights go out.

-

Later, she wakes up in a glass case, that just so happens to be in a museum. That museum -  _ The Museum of the Dead,  _ she hears Joey call it, which is fitting, to say the least - also happens to be in Purgatory.

Because Justine's- this isn't life, this isn't death, so what the hell  _ does _ she call it? - circumstances (is probably the best way of putting it) getting weirder was  _ just  _ what she needed.

_ Oh well. At least I'm no longer floating in an abyssal void after literally  _ dying,  _ and Joey says he's here to save us and get us back home safely! God, I hope this works. We all need a second chance. _

_ - _

Then everything goes to shit,  _ again.  _ She can't help feeling like she maybe should have expected this, and maybe shouldn't have been so blindly trusting of Joey. Justine loves him, really, she very much does, but he's also happened to pick up a habit of bringing trouble, death and chaos wherever he goes.

And then somehow, it gets  _ worse.  _ She's been voted into the very first challenge of death.  _ Joy. _

-

As she scrambles around, trying to find her pieces, Justine is more than a little panicked. Tana is flying  _ so  _ far ahead that Justine could very well lose this. 

Justine is searching and scanning like a hawk but before she knows it? It's  _ over _ . Tana has beaten her, won, fair and square. Justine Ezarik has been condemned to an eternal and mind-breaking final death- which means she's going back to the void.

_ No! Please, no, anything but that,  _ her mind sobs as she tries and fails to fight off the mummified Pharaoh, his crusty hands squeezing her neck and pushing her down. Justine struggles, to no avail, and then her breath leaves her for a final time (really final this time) as her neck  _ crunches,  _ bones splintering under the Pharaoh's grasp.

-

When she wakes up, floating once more in an endless abyss of black nothingness, the first thing she does is  _ scream. _

**Author's Note:**

> owchie angsty hours anyway ROI TOMORROW I'M HYPED WHO'S HYPER??? roila hours baby,,,
> 
> see you then! please leave a comment if you enjoyed this!


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